Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
DOWNED WITH THE SHIP
Craft beer honors steamship that sank off Broward 118 years ago.
The SS Copenhagen, a steamship that sank 118 years ago off the coast of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, is getting its own craft beer.
On April 8, Fort Lauderdale’s LauderAle Brewery will unveil the seaworthy brew, an imperial stout punched with notes of chocolate, vanilla, charred oak, maple syrup and roasted coffee, and aged inside Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels.
So how does one make a beer taste like a shipwreck?
“Uh, you can’t,” LauderAle owner Kyle Jones says with a laugh. “Not unless you ferment it at the bottom of the ocean, right? But the beer is thick, dark and intense, and it reminds me of when I first dove off South Florida’s coasts to explore all of our shipwrecks.”
Describing the beer as “aggressively chocolate-y,” Jones says SS Copenhagen the beer will be the first of several limited-release brews honoring historic shipwrecks off South Florida’s coast. While hauling coal from Philadelphia to Havana, SS Copenhagen the steamer slammed into a reef on May 26, 1900, and sank less than a mile off Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, he says.
The beer dovetails with Jones’ love of snorkeling and diving. Two years ago, Jones explored the SS Copenhagen, now a popular dive attraction, with his friend and LauderAle co-owner Joey Farrell, who’s also a naval architect.
“We grew up fishing and diving in the Keys and the Bahamas,” Jones says, “so it’s good to bring some attention back to the ocean, which is an important resource that’s abused constantly.”
Jones says a future shipwreck-inspired craft beer will highlight the SS Sapona, a concrete-hulled cargo steamship that hauled rum and whiskey from the Bahamas to the East Coast during Prohibition. A devastating 1926 hurricane smacked the Bahamas and sank the ship.
Each bottle of SS Copenhagen will cost $25, and about 200 bottles will be available.
SS Copenhagen will be released at 11 a.m. April 8, at LauderAle, 3305 SE 14th Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. Each bottle will cost $25, with a four-bottle limit per person. Call 954-653-9711, or go to LauderAle.co.